HIGHER WAGES.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 November 1919, Page 5

HIGHER WAGES.

IMPORTANT INCREASE AT HOME. HIGH COST OF LIVING, 130 PER CENT. ABOVI eflfopb.—Pfess Assn.—Copyright. Received Nov. 9, 5.5 p m. London, Nov. 8, An interim Court of Arbitration hasdelivered a far-reaching decision affecting the wages of forty-seven trade unions concerned in the engineering, iron and steel trades, who were granted a 5s weekly increase based on the present and the prospective increase in the cost of living. The increased cost, compared with that before the war was, on October Ist, a hundred and twenty per cent., and on November Ist it was estimated at a hundred and thirty per cent. The Court anticipated a further increase during the winter.' The decision affects a million workers. The extra wages entailed amount to £13,000,000 annually. It is expected that other unions will demand similar increases, causing a further increase in the coat of living, and thus initiating renewed wages demands.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. TO AVOID STRIKES. NEW GOVERNMENT MEASURE. Received Nov. 9, 5,5 pjn. London, Nov. 8. Sir Robert Home (the Minister for Labor), in moving the second reading of the Industrial Courts Bill, establishing a permanent Industrial Court and a Court of inquiry, and also providing that it is illegal to lower wages before September, 1920, admitted that persistent State interference in wages would lead to disaster, but trade conditions were still most abnormal. Stability was necessary. Nothing affected trade like uncertainty. The Government was abandoning the clauses enforcing compulsory arbitration, which the trade unions considered an infringement on their rights. The Government aimed at systematising wages and encouraging settlements by arbitration, and thus avoiding strikes. He believed the Bill would create a better atmosphere regarding industrial relations. Eight hundred and fifty-three disputes were decided during the past year, and there were only three strikes against the awards. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. Mr. J. R. Clynes said that the Labor Party would hare preferred simple measures guaranteeing a continuanec of the present wages. Instead of this the Government proposed far-reaching and permanent innovations. The Government had done nothing to solve the unemployment difficulty. The Labor Party shared in the desire for industrial peace. This was proved by the prevention of the extension of and the successful efforts to settle the railways strike. Unemployment pay ought to bt abolished. It would be better to pay workmen sixty shillings weekly fot some work, even if not fully earned, than thirtr fhillinsrs for idleness. Sir Donald Mac Lean regarded industrial courts as a useful development of State intervention in great disputes. The Bill was read a second time.